January 13, 2020

Other things being equal, this year will see the end of open plan and start of a four day week

You’ll only get one prediction from me this year and that’s about how all of the other workplace predictions will be cut and paste jobs from the past three decades and more. If you want to take a cynical approach to the whole thing, you’ll find one from your humble servant here. Apart from that, if you only read one set of actual predictions for 2020 or even the Twenties (that’ll take some getting used to), then make it this from an author also jaded and burdened by too many glib pronouncements about work and workplaces in general and the annual parade of predictable predictions in particular. More →

January 9, 2020

Putting the responsibility into personal and corporate social responsibility ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Environment, Wellbeing

You’re probably aware of the experiment performed by Stanley Milgram in which volunteers were asked by men in white coats to administer what they believed to be electric shocks to another person, who they could not see, but could hear, from behind a screen. Around two-thirds of the volunteers agreed to deliver what they were told to be potentially fatal shocks to the subject, who they could hear screaming and begging them to stop. What they didn’t know was the person they were agreeing to inflict this on was in fact an actor. Although now questioned, Milgram’s findings remain the famous of a series of studies that have attempted to highlight the willingness of humans to bow to authority figures and comply with group norms irrespective of what their own morals might tell them.

December 23, 2019

The ten most read workplace stories of 2019

by Mark Eltringham • Features

Here’s a rundown of the best-read stories and pages on Workplace Insight first published over the last year. Taken together they may offer a snapshot of current workplace thinking although I would have to caveat that by saying that because we don’t publish obvious uninformed and hysterical nonsense, it will by necessity not include some stories that have gained traction elsewhere. More →

December 20, 2019

The tipped out, left out and fallout from a failing workplace culture

by Mark Eltringham • Features, Technology, Wellbeing, Workplace design

The big workplace news story of the past week or so appears to be one about a toilet seat. Sometimes it’s in the small things we can discern a greater truth. To see a world in a grain of sand, as William Blake wrote. The seat of this much discussed loo is tilted forward by 13 degrees so that after about five minutes it becomes very uncomfortable because people tire of using their legs to stop themselves sliding off. The reason is clearly to stop them ‘wasting time’ on the toilet. More →

December 19, 2019

The truth about all those workplace trends lists

by Mark Eltringham • Facilities management, Features, Property, Technology, Workplace, Workplace design

You would not believe the number of firms that ask us to publish a list of workplace trends each week. Or maybe you would, given the number that have appeared elsewhere. Each firm perhaps convinced they are saying something original, unique or interesting, or maybe simply convinced they stand out in some way, while pushing the same timid, stale narratives about the workplace. It goes without saying that the commercialised messages often do little to shine a light on complex realities. In the words of the Scottish poet and anthropologist Andrew Lang, they use information ‘like a drunk uses lamp-posts—for support rather than illumination’.

November 29, 2019

Seeing red about the only home we will ever know

by Mark Eltringham • Environment, Features, Wellbeing, Workplace design

Somewhere in the Utah desert, there is a small living pod designed to emulate conditions on Mars for a group of scientists keen to explore how we might colonise that red planet after messing this blue one up. This came as a surprise to me as did the news that Ikea has been on site recently installing some of its furniture for the occupants. Next up perhaps, an installation of Billy bookcases on the International Space Station as scientists explore the effects on people of a lost screw in zero gravity. I am Jack’s unconstrained rage. More →

November 19, 2019

Back of the net – a conversation with Chris Lewis about leadership in the 21st Century

by Mark Eltringham • Podcasts, Premium Content

Is there a crisis of leadership in the 21st Century? And if so, what can we do about it? I had the opportunity to address the issues in conversation with Chris Lewis, the co-author along with Dr Pippa Malmgren of the Business Book of the Year The Leadership Lab, diverting briefly to talk about the golden age of football and its lessons for the modern day leader and how the challenges of leadership are not just evident in organisation, but society as a whole. More →

November 19, 2019

Performance management systems still a major drag for HR leaders

by Mark Eltringham • News, Workplace

Fewer than one-fifth of HR leaders believe that performance management is effective at achieving its primary objective, according to a report from Gartner (registration). Though companies have been prioritising performance management improvements for years, 81 percent of HR leaders are still making changes and experimenting with their organisation’s efforts, according to the report. Most efforts to fix the issues are centred on reducing effort with the survey claiming that two-thirds of HR leaders focused on making processes either easier or less time consuming. However, reducing the effort managers and employees must put into the systems has significant negative effects. More →

November 13, 2019

Drawing back the curtain on the new workplace

by Mark Eltringham • Features, Flexible working, Technology, Wellbeing, Workplace design

It’s a shame that Rhymer Rigby’s piece in The Times on creativity at work is behind a paywall because it says something perfectly obvious and demonstrable about workplace creativity that more people should read. The gist is that a cult has grown up around creativity that should be subject to more scrutiny and we should stop thinking about all work as the potential outlet for the creative instincts of people who may not have any, may not work in a job that involves them or who may not want to express them during their shifts in the Amazon warehouse. More →

November 8, 2019

Brexit continues to affect jobs market in UK, despite latest delay

by Mark Eltringham • News, Workplace

Although the stuttering resolution of the Brexit issue has had a mixed impact on the economy so far, a new study claims that the effects can be discerned in the jobs market. The number of vacancies has dropped below 1 million for the first time in over four years, after losing a total of 132,201 jobs in the past 12 months according to the latest research from job search engine Adzuna.co.uk. The Energy, Oil and Gas industry has seen just over a third of jobs wiped from the job market in the past 12 months as Brexit uncertainty continues to unsettle the job market. Domestic work has seen an equal number of jobs lost in the past 12 months (34 percent). More →

November 5, 2019

World Economic Forum announces major circular economy initiative

by Mark Eltringham • Environment, News

The World Economic Forum is creating a new partnership which it claims will harness the potential of technology innovation and smart policy to fast-track the circular economy. WEF claims that SCALE 360 will collaborate with government, business, civil society and entrepreneurs around the world to find bright new ideas that will help us cut the waste in the world’s economies. It defines a circular economy as a regenerative approach to production and consumption, in which products and materials are redesigned, recovered and reused to reduce environmental impacts. Research shows that this transition could generate $4.5 trillion in additional economic output by 2030. More →

October 28, 2019

Majority of American workers are unhappy in their jobs

by Mark Eltringham • News, Wellbeing

Although more people are in work in the US than at any time in the past 50 years, only 40 percent of American workers say that they work in good jobs, according to a new study (registration) from the Lumina Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Omidyar Network, and Gallup. The report claims that 44 percent of workers surveyed said they had “mediocre” jobs while 16 percent said they were in “bad” jobs. More →